And You Thought Your Coworker Had Bad Breath

Imagine the worst part of your job. Now, imagine it smelling terrible—like the-baddest-breath-you've-ever-smelled kind of terrible.

On a recent tour of Listerine's New Jersey laboratory, I was ushered into a small room dedicated to breeding the bacteria that grow in our mouths, including the ones that cause bad breath. Twice a day, the bacteria are exposed to mouthwash, then tested to see how thoroughly the rinses killed the germs. And it's someone's task to go in and monitor the progress. Hey, it's a job....

I bailed out of the room after maybe five seconds, and that's being generous. But I also got to see tons of cool machines during my visit to the lab, like laser-scanning microscopes in rooms that smelled perfectly pleasant. Still, being back at my cubicle at Allure doesn't seem so bad after all, particularly since the worst thing that happens around here, smell-wise, is an overload of perfume samples.